West Overton is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
in the English county of
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, about west of
Marlborough
Marlborough may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Marlborough, Wiltshire, England
** Marlborough College, public school
* Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England
* The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England
Austral ...
. The
river Kennet
The Kennet is a tributary of the River Thames in Southern England. Most of the river is straddled by the North Wessex Downs AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The lower reaches have been made navigable as the Kennet Navigation, which β ...
runs immediately north of the village, separating it from the
A4 road. The parish includes the village of
Lockeridge
Lockeridge (pop. approximately 290) is a village in Wiltshire, England. It lies at the edge of the West Woods in the Kennet Valley, west of Marlborough, east of Avebury and south of Swindon. It is south of the A4 road which was historically ...
, also near the river, further east (downstream).
History
The area has many prehistoric sites, and the Avebury section of the
Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage site
Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in Wiltshire, England. The WHS covers two large areas of land separated by about , rather than a specific monument or building. The sites were inscribed as co-listi ...
extends into the northwest of the parish. Within that area, on the southern slopes of Overton Down, are seven
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
round barrows, forming a
cemetery
A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...
which extends south onto
Overton Hill
Overton Hill is a 571 ft (174 m) hill at the southern edge of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire, England. It lies just west of the village of West Overton and about west from the town of Marlborough. The A4 road passes close to the north, a ...
, overlooking the river. In modern archaeology, this it the
type site
In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...
for the
Overton Period
The Overton Period is the name given by archaeologist Colin Burgess to a division of prehistory in Britain covering the period between 2000 BC and 1650 BC.
It follows the Mount Pleasant Period and precedes the Bedd Branwen Period, and is nam ...
of 2000β1650 BC.
Also on Overton Hill, just over the parish boundary, is
The Sanctuary
The Sanctuary was a stone and timber circle near the village of Avebury in the south-western English county of Wiltshire. Excavation has revealed the location of the 58 stone sockets and 62 post-holes. The ring was part of a tradition of stone ...
, the site of a
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
monument which had two concentric circles of stones and four concentric circles of timber posts, and was linked to the stone circles at
Avebury
Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in t ...
, 2.5km to the northwest, by two lines of stones known as
West Kennet Avenue
Kennet Avenue or West Kennet Avenue is a prehistoric site in the English county of Wiltshire. It was an avenue of two parallel lines of stones 25m wide and 2.5 km in length, which ran between the Neolithic sites of Avebury and The Sanctuar ...
.
North of the village, on the slopes of Overton Down, are an oval
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
enclosure and three
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
burial mounds, a short length of Roman road and an
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
inhumation cemetery. In the far north of the parish are further Bronze Age, Roman and later settlements. In the south, within
West Woods, is a Neolithic
long barrow
Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...
.
A manor is named as ''Uferan Tune'' in a charter dated 939. In 1086, the
Domesday survey recorded 13 households at (West) ''Ovretone'', and land held by
Wilton Abbey
Wilton Abbey was a Benedictine convent in Wiltshire, England, three miles from Salisbury, probably on the site now occupied by Wilton House. It was active from the early tenth century until 1539.
History Foundation
Wilton Abbey is first reco ...
. Another 13 were at Fyfield and two at East Overton, both on land held by
St. Swithun's Priory, Winchester; there were smaller settlements at ''Locherige'' (Lockeridge) and at Shaw. It is likely that in the 12th and 13th centuries the entire parish lay within
Savernake forest
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .
Most of the forest lies within the civil parish of Savernake. It is privately owned by the Earl of Ca ...
.
The earlier manors were reflected in the later composition of Overton parish, which had tithings of East Overton, West Overton, Lockeridge and Shaw, together with the chapelry of
Fyfield. The western boundary of the parish was defined by an ancient trackway on the summits of the
Marlborough Downs
The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better k ...
. The parish had a detached part to the southwest, namely the chapelry of
Alton Priors (its name deriving from ownership by St Swithun's Priory). The settlements at East and West Overton were adjacent, and since the later 18th century the merged village has been called West Overton.
The village of Shaw, southwest of West Overton and straddling the
Wansdyke earthwork, was apparently deserted in the 15th century. Alton Priors and Fyfield became separate civil parishes in the 19th century.
The
Wiltshire Victoria County History
The Wiltshire Victoria County History, properly called The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire but commonly referred to as VCH Wiltshire, is an encyclopaedic history of the county of Wiltshire in England. It forms part of the overall Vic ...
has an account of the many owners of the manors of Overton, Lockeridge and Shaw.
By 1870, when the Overton estate was sold to the trustees of London brewery owner
Sir Henry Meux, it encompassed land at Fyfield, Lockeridge and
Clatford, and the woodland at West Woods. After the death of
his son in 1900, the estate was owned for a short time by
Alec Taylor of Manton House. The
Forestry Commission
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England.
The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...
bought West Woods in 1931.
The London to Bath road was
turnpiked in 1743. In the 1970s, the opening of the
M4 motorway
The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...
, about to the north, reduced the amount of traffic on what was by then the A4.
Local government
The parish elects a joint parish council with the adjacent parish of
Fyfield; the council is named
Fyfield and West Overton. It falls within the area of the
Wiltshire Council
Wiltshire Council is a council for the unitary authority of Wiltshire (excluding the separate unitary authority of Swindon) in South West England, created in 2009. It is the successor authority to Wiltshire County Council (1889β2009) and the ...
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
, which is responsible for all significant local government functions.
Religious sites
Parish church
![The Church of St Michael and All Angels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/The_Church_of_St_Michael_and_All_Angels.jpg)
There was a church at Overton in the 12th century, and by the next century the churches at
Fyfield and
Alton Priors were dependent on it.
St. Swithun's Priory, Winchester, appropriated Overton church and its chapels in 1291.
The
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
of St Michael and All Angels was built in 1877β8, in flint with squared
sarsen
Sarsen stones are silicified sandstone blocks found in quantity in Southern England on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, and Hampshire.
Geology ...
banding, by
C.E. Ponting, architect to the Meux estate.
The tower β described by
Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aihud Pevsner (1925β2018), American physicist
* Antoine Pevsner (1886β1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo
* David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...
as "just a little too thin to be genuine" was not completed until 1883. It replaced an earlier church which had become dilapidated, and the nave was built on the same foundations.
Construction was financed by
Sir Henry Meux, and reused the chancel arch and three nave windows; oak beams from the nave roof were made into internal doors, a lectern and panels of the pulpit.
A fragment of a
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
church survives: the head of a small 12th-century window was reset into a wall of the porch.
The church had three bells in 1553, one of which is still present. Another dates from 1606; in 1883 one old bell was recast and three made, bringing the peal to six. Ponting also designed the parish war memorial, a tall stone cross dedicated in 1921, which stands opposite the churchyard. The church was recorded as
Grade II* listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
in 1958.
Alton Priors was anciently a
chapelry
A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century.
Status
It had a similar status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel of ease (chapel) which was the communi ...
of Overton,
its church being some five miles south of Overton church by road.
In 1913, Alton Priors was detached from Overton vicarage and attached to the adjacent rectory of
Alton Barnes
Alton may refer to:
People
*Alton (given name)
*Alton (surname)
Places Australia
* Alton National Park, Queensland
* Alton, Queensland, a town in the Shire of Balonne
Canada
* Alton, Ontario
* Alton, Nova Scotia
New Zealand
* Alton, New Zealan ...
.
The benefice was united with those of
Fyfield and
East Kennett in 1929. Today the parish is part of the Upper Kennet Benefice, created in 1978, which covers eight churches in the area.
Methodists
From 1901 to 1966 there was a
Methodist
Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...
chapel at West Overton.
Amenities
A
National School was built at Lockeridge in 1875 to serve the parishes of West Overton and Fyfield. The building (and extensions) continues in use as Kennet Valley C of E
Voluntary Aided
A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation), contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In m ...
Primary School.
The parish has a village hall, Kennet Valley Village Hall, near Lockeridge.
Landmarks
![West Overton houses 5 (geograph 5894276)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/West_Overton_houses_5_%28geograph_5894276%29.jpg)
Overton manor house, close to the church, is from the 16th and 17th centuries with later improvements; the main wing has a tile-hung upper floor under a thatched roof, and at right angles a former barn is in red brick. West Overton House, in the northeast of the village, is a former rectory of the late 18th century with later extensions.
Shaw House, which replaced an earlier manor house 400m to the east,
was built in brick in the early 19th century. Lockeridge House, standing on the other side of the river from Lockeridge village, was built in red brick around 1740 and is Grade II* listed.
North of the A4, the parish extends onto the
Marlborough Downs
The North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) is located in the English counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Wiltshire. The name ''North Wessex Downs'' is not a traditional one, the area covered being better k ...
. On
Overton Down
Overton Down Experimental Earthwork (often referred to simply as Overton Down) is a long-term project in experimental archaeology in Wiltshire, England. In 1960 an earthwork was built to simulate such ancient structures. Various objects were pl ...
is an earthwork built in 1960 as a long-term archaeology experiment. The
Piggledene valley, with its
sarsen
Sarsen stones are silicified sandstone blocks found in quantity in Southern England on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire; in Kent; and in smaller quantities in Berkshire, Essex, Oxfordshire, Dorset, and Hampshire.
Geology ...
stones, is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest managed by the National Trust.
Overton Hill
Overton Hill is a 571 ft (174 m) hill at the southern edge of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire, England. It lies just west of the village of West Overton and about west from the town of Marlborough. The A4 road passes close to the north, a ...
, with prehistoric features including
The Sanctuary
The Sanctuary was a stone and timber circle near the village of Avebury in the south-western English county of Wiltshire. Excavation has revealed the location of the 58 stone sockets and 62 post-holes. The ring was part of a tradition of stone ...
, is to the west of the village and partly in
Avebury
Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in t ...
parish. The ancient
Ridgeway, now a national trail, begins here and follows the parish boundary northwards.
The medieval
Wansdyke earthwork crosses the southernmost part of the parish.
Gallery
File:West Overton Church.jpg, St Michael and All Angels church seen from Overton Hill
Overton Hill is a 571 ft (174 m) hill at the southern edge of the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire, England. It lies just west of the village of West Overton and about west from the town of Marlborough. The A4 road passes close to the north, a ...
File:Crossing of the Ridgeways - geograph.org.uk - 422885.jpg, Crossing point on Overton Down of the Wessex Ridgeway
The Wessex Ridgeway is a long-distance footpath in southwest England. It runs from Marlborough in Wiltshire to Lyme Regis in Dorset, via the northern edge of Salisbury Plain and across Cranborne Chase AONB. The footpath was opened in 1994.
At ...
and the Ridgeway National Trail
The ancient tree-lined path winds over the downs countryside
The Ridgeway is a ridgeway or ancient trackway described as Britain's oldest road. The section clearly identified as an ancient trackway extends from Wiltshire along the chalk r ...
File:Standing stone and gallop, Overton Down - geograph.org.uk - 412185.jpg, Standing stone and gallop, Overton Down
File:Sarsen stones, beside Delling Copse - geograph.org.uk - 408882.jpg, Sarsen stones beside Delling Copse
References
* Map 'Explorer 157', published by the
Ordnance Survey
, nativename_a =
, nativename_r =
, logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg
, logo_width = 240px
, logo_caption =
, seal =
, seal_width =
, seal_caption =
, picture =
, picture_width =
, picture_caption =
, formed =
, preceding1 =
, di ...
, , revised 1997.
External links
Fyfield and West Overton Parish CouncilWest Overton at Wiltshire Community Historyβ Wiltshire Council
Village Design Statement(2000) β describes the parish and Fyfield
{{authority control
Villages in Wiltshire
Civil parishes in Wiltshire